Gradually, the term began to pass. Over the next several weeks, Dinky and her friends managed to stay mostly out of trouble, and the looming threat of the dean began to fade from Dinky’s mind.
The students’ classes intensified rapidly. Dinky and Clarity often spent hours practicing their transformation spells, and Dinky found herself turning to Honeydew for aid in Magical Biology more often than she would have liked. Their hard work paid off though, and all three fillies maintained high grades as mid-term approached.
However, in spite of Dinky’s academic success, life at the Academy continued to have its small problems. Ever since the duel, Sparkler had kept a particularly close eye on Dinky. The filly did her best to avoid even the most minor infraction of the rules, ever wary of the overseer’s watchful gaze.
Then there was the matter of Scuffle. Dinky had become wholly confused on the matter of the colt. Often when their paths crossed, he seemed eager to confront the trio of fillies, and was usually even more eager to do so when his brothers were around to back him up. Other times however, he’d pass by Dinky and her friends without a word. Whether he chose to ignore them or confront them seemed to be based on a set of circumstances that Dinky simply could not comprehend.
One other matter puzzled Dinky as well: what exactly was lurking in the shadows of the forest next to the castle, and why did it seem so interested in her? Dinky was gripped by the familiar sensation of being watched about once a week. Sometimes, she’d catch a glimpse of those blue eyes again, but their owner never showed itself. Students were permitted to wander the forest freely during daylight hours, and Dinky’s friends had been more than happy to join her on brief expeditions into the trees. Their searches always failed, though.
One afternoon after classes had ended, Dinky and her friends were playing in the pool at the base of the waterfall running down the valley wall when Dinky suddenly felt the all-too-familiar stare coming from the nearby trees.
“That thing is watching us again,” she said dully, not even bothering to glance in the direction of the forest. “You girls can feel it, right?”
Clarity climbed onto the bank and shook herself violently, flinging water everywhere. “Yeah, it’s lurking over there again,” she affirmed. “Just ignore it; it hasn’t caused you any trouble all term. Why would it start now?”
“It’s so strange,” Honeydew added as she wrung out her sopping tail. “Professor Chestnut has been kind enough to help me with some research, but we haven’t come up with much and she’s never encountered this particular creature herself, so she can’t really help.”
“Come to think of it,” Clarity added, “I’ve been down by the forest loads of times by myself, and I’ve never encountered it. I’ve even asked a couple other foals about it, including some older students my sister used to know, but none of them have ever seen it either.”
She smirked. “I think it only shows up when Dinky’s around.”
Dinky rolled her eyes. “How flattering,” she said sarcastically. “The creepy forest thing is just stalking me.”
“Well, you are the only one who’s actually seen it,” Honeydew pointed out as she carefully wound the braid back into her tail. “Every time you bring us with you to look for it, it just goes away before we even make it to the tree line. I might have a hard time believing it’s there at all, if not for that unsettling feeling when it watches us.”
“It’s not like I’ve ever gotten a good look at the thing,” Dinky said. “Sometimes it seems to slither away when I get near it, other times it looks more like it’s running, and once it climbed up into the trees. I don’t know of too many animals that can do all those things, and if I never get close enough to see it in the light, I’ll never be able to figure it out.”
“You have seen its eyes clearly, right?” Clarity asked.
Dinky cast a glance toward the forest, seeing if she could spot the familiar glimmer, but as usual, the creature was well hidden. “Yeah, its eyes practically glow in the dark,” she responded. “They’re blue, and they don’t have pupils. I can’t think of any animal with eyes like that.”
Clarity stiffened. “Um, are you sure about that?” she asked slowly. “Now that I think about it, I’m pretty sure we do know a creature like that. And he happens to be our assistant professor in Transformation class.”
Dinky’s jaw dropped. “You’re right!” she sputtered. “Nester’s got eyes like that! Why didn’t I think of it before?”
“But you told us once that the creature’s eyes were pretty small,” Honeydew added softly. “I’ve only seen Nester around once or twice, but his eyes seem kind of… not small.”
“He’s a changeling, Honeydew,” Dinky said bluntly. “He can modify his appearance however he wants. I don’t think it’d be too difficult for him to shrink himself or something.”
She gasped as another thought occurred to her. “In fact,” she continued, more loudly as her theory gathered steam, “that would also explain why the thing in the forest seems to move so strangely. If it was a changeling, it could just change shape to escape in the most efficient way depending on its environment!”
"Don't you think he'd probably change shape to spy on you, then?" Honeydew interjected.
Dinky shrugged. "He probably doesn't realize I can still see his eyes when he's hidden. If he did, he'd probably take more care to hide them."
“But… if it is Nester, what interest does he have in you?” Clarity asked.
“I—”
Dinky stopped short and scratched her head.
“That is a very good question.”
Clarity nodded. “I know it seems like it must be Nester, but he’s been nothing but friendly to us since we met him. He needs a motive.”
Dinky plopped down on the damp grass and pondered. “Maybe… maybe he’s just keeping an eye on ponies that worry him,” she theorized. “He probably knows that I was in Canterlot during the changeling invasion, so he figures that I’m somepony who wouldn’t like him, and he’s watching me to make sure I don’t try to get him fired.”
“That would kind of make sense,” Clarity agreed. “Nester doesn’t have any other options. If he gets banished from the Academy, he’ll have nowhere to go.”
“Well, couldn’t he have just talked to me?” Dinky asked crossly. “This whole stalking thing is getting annoying.”
“You’re getting ahead of yourself,” Clarity warned. “This is only if it turns out that it’s actually him that’s stalking you."
Dinky blinked. “What other evidence do you need, Clarity?” she asked, dumbfounded. “All signs point to Nester!”
Clarity shrugged. “Beats me. I’ve just got a gut feeling that Nester’s a good guy. He wouldn’t do something like this.”
“I’d like to believe that,” Dinky admitted. “But he is a changeling. Being bad might be in his nature.”
“Um, girls?” Honeydew interrupted. “Have you noticed that we’re not being watched anymore?”
Dinky and Clarity looked toward the forest. The eerie sense of presence had vanished.
“Well, he’s gone for now,” Dinky said finally. “I guess we should go inside and investigate a little further. Maybe there’s something in the library about changelings that could help us prove—”
Splash!
A large object hurtled into the pool, creating a wave that washed over the three recently-dried fillies. Honeydew squeaked in surprise and ducked behind her friends, but the action failed to shield her from the splash. The girls coughed and sputtered as they shook off the unexpected water.
A colt’s brown face popped up from beneath the water’s surface. He grinned at the fillies.
“Aww, did you three get wet?” he asked with mock concern.
“Scuffle!” Dinky shouted. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“I think I’m deciding to go for a swim,” Scuffle replied, chuckling. “It’s not my fault you three happened to be sitting in the splash zone.”
Dinky rolled her eyes, causing Scuffle to laugh.
“Cheer up!” he chided. “You probably needed a bath anyway. Maybe they should call you Stinky Doo!”
Some loud, obnoxious laughter came from the other side of the pool. Scuffle’s brothers had arrived.
“Good one, bro!” Scorch called. “I knew you wouldn’t let her sass you without sassing her right back.”
The brothers took a running leap into the water as well. Dinky and her friends had the sense to back up before they could cause a splash.
“Beat it, twerps,” Frosty said. “We’re using the swimming hole now.”
Dinky, in the interest of her own health, had never had the nerve to stand up to Scuffle’s older brothers, but for a moment, she seriously considered doing so. She glared at the ponies in the pool, but before she could say something, she felt a hoof tap her softly on the shoulder. Dinky turned around and felt her anger replaced with concern when she saw Honeydew; the filly was shivering and on the verge of tears.
“Please, let’s just go,” Honeydew whispered. “We can’t really do anything, and I just don’t want any more conflict…”
“Hey!” Scorch called. “You heard Frosty! Get going!”
“Come on,” Dinky said to Clarity, unable to ignore Honeydew’s plea for escape. “Let’s back off.”
“We were done anyway…” Clarity grumbled as the fillies headed for the castle.
After they had gone a few steps, Dinky glanced back and locked eyes with Scuffle for a moment. The colt wore a strange, complex expression. After a few seconds, he turned away and swam over to join his brothers. Dinky watched for a moment more, and then went with her friends to dry herself off for the second time in the last few minutes.
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Problems like Scuffle or the strange creature watching Dinky often seemed to blend into the background very quickly as academics once again took the fillies’ full attention, and this week was no exception. On one cloudy Wednesday morning, Dinky found herself studying rigorously for an upcoming exam in Basic Enchantments class.
Enchantments had quickly become Dinky’s favorite subject. She wasn’t any more skilled at casting enchantments as she was with any other spell, but the very nature of the subject and the potential of what could be accomplished with the associated magic filled her with a sense of excitement that most of the other subjects couldn’t quite match.
Although she’d read it many times, Dinky opened her textbook to the first section for one final review.
Lesson One: What is an Enchantment?
Enchantment is a field of magic that is all too often ignored or forgotten in favor of bigger, flashier, and more powerful spells. In truth, enchantments are one of the most essential parts of modern unicorn life, even if we don’t always realize it.
In simplest terms, an enchantment is a spell that can be stored in a physical object, giving that object long-term magical properties. It’s possible to place an enchantment on any object, from the smallest stone to the largest building, although certain structures are capable of holding more powerful or reliable enchantments than others. It’s even possible to enchant oneself, or another pony, for a short time, but this requires a great deal of power and skill.
It may not be immediately clear what benefit can be gained from placing a long-term spell on an object. Enchantments are a sort of miscellaneous field; spells that have various effects that don’t fit into any other category of magic are common. For example, let’s say it’s a brisk winter day and all you have is an old scarf to protect you from the cold. With a very simple enchantment, the scarf can be made to give off magical warmth, so you can tackle the chilly day comfortably.
Enchantments can generate energy, provide strength to objects, send messages or signals, and even temporarily heighten natural senses or abilities. New uses for these spells are discovered on a regular basis, making it one of the broadest fields of magic.
For the next few chapters, we will focus on—
“Hey, Dinky,” Clarity interrupted, calling down from up on her bunk, where she too was studying. “Which gem is better for holding a strong enchantment: a ruby, or an emerald?”
“A ruby, I think,” Dinky answered, “because the structure of harder gemstones is more favorable for holding the magic, right?”
Clarity nodded and buried her nose in her book again.
One of the very first things the Enchantments professor had taught their class was that gemstones were by far the most useful objects for containing an enchantment, due to their highly uniform crystal structure. What followed was a long-winded lecture about the magic accommodation capacities of various molecular structures, most of which Dinky hadn’t committed to memory.
Dinky enjoyed working with gems during their class’s practice sessions. Their capacity for becoming imbued with magic was immediately apparent; the first time Dinky had directed an enchantment at one, it had felt a bit like the stone had actually tugged the magic away from her horn and into itself.
As interesting as Enchantments was, it still required a lot of practice and careful memorization. Dinky couldn’t say that she wasn’t at least a little worried about the upcoming exam.
“Looks like it’s almost time for class,” Clarity announced. “Come on, girls, we have an exam to ace.”
As usual, Clarity showed no sign of being anything but optimistic, even though Dinky suspected that in truth the grey filly was feeling more nervous than she was. Dinky and Honeydew hopped up and followed their friend to the castle.
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There was total silence save for the scratching of quills, and even that was muffled by the thickly carpeted floor and curtain-padded walls of the Enchantments classroom.
Dinky examined her test carefully. Something seemed to be amiss; the test contained only a hoofful of questions, most of which were very simple. In its current form, it couldn’t possibly take more than a small fraction of the class period.
Dinky looked up curiously, and her confused gaze met the eyes of Professor Luster, the mare who taught all the Enchantments classes at the Academy, from the most basic to the most advanced.
Professor Luster was one of the youngest professors at the Academy. So much so in fact, that more than a few of the fourth and fifth term students evidently had a bit of a crush on her. She was, by any standard, an extremely beautiful pony, with a whitish coat tinted with faint pink, and a perfectly groomed, silky, hot pink mane with a bold streak of yellow running through it.
Despite her age and appearance, Professor Luster was no pushover. Apparently, she was responsible for the discovery of over fifty new enchantments in the few short years since she herself had graduated from the Academy.
Professor Luster noticed Dinky’s concerned look and trotted quietly over. “Everything alright, Dinky?” she asked in a hushed tone.
“I… don’t know,” Dinky replied. “Is the test supposed to be this… short?”
Professor Luster winked. “We’re doing a little something special today,” she replied. “I had to shorten the test so we’d have time for it. I don’t think anypony is going to mind.”
Dinky glanced around, and sure enough, the rest of the class seemed to be breathing a collective sigh of relief as they realized how short and simple the dreaded examination really was. Dinky hurriedly filled in the last few answers and then lifted the paper in her aura and placed it in the box on the professor’s desk. The remaining students finished within a few minutes.
Professor Luster scanned the room and flicked her tail in satisfaction. “Good, that didn’t take long at all,” she said. “As you’ve all probably guessed, the test was originally going to be much longer, but I was presented with a unique opportunity yesterday and decided that is was just too good not to share with you all. So consider it a little favor for being such a great class so far.”
Royal blue magic surrounded the professor’s horn, and she lifted a huge sack up from behind her desk and placed it on the floor in front of the students. The contents clattered together loudly.
“As it turns out, the Academy’s mail dragon is a bit ill right now,” the professor explained. “He’s lost his appetite, and so he was kind enough to donate his daily allowance of gemstones to the Enchantments department, since he isn’t planning to eat them anyway.”
A filly in the front row raised her hoof. “But you’ve been providing gems for us to use in class almost every day,” she pointed out. “How is this any different?”
“I’m glad you asked,” said Professor Luster. “Gemstones are common in Equestria, but ones of high quality and useful shape are fairly hard to come by. The ones we practice on in class aren’t exactly the best. They’re softer stones, like quartz, or if we’re lucky, garnet. On the rare occasion that we have harder stones available, they’re usually just irregular shards, with shapes that don’t favor particularly strong enchantments. And when we do get very high quality stones, they’re usually kept aside for use by the Advanced Enchantment classes rather than you all.”
She gestured to the sack. “Dragons on the other hoof need harder gems to promote good health, so Twinkletoes often has some very nice gems in his collection. And today, we have a bag full of them. In fact, there are so many that even the Basic Enchantments classes can use them, and there will still be enough left over for the advanced classes to use them later.”
Professor Luster loosened the string on the bag and displayed the gems within. A few hundred vibrant stones in many colors all cut into beautiful shapes glimmered inside. Excited whispers spread throughout the class.
“So, here’s what I’m thinking,” the professor said slowly, grinning at the students’ reactions. “Each of you can come up and choose a stone. Some are better than others, so I’m not going to let you look at what you’re choosing. Whatever you pull out of the bag, you get to keep. But even the softest stones in here are harder than the ones we usually use in class, so any choice is a good one.”
“Which enchantment are we going to practice on them?” one colt asked.
“I was getting to that,” Professor Luster continued. “It seemed like a waste to use a special opportunity like this on just a simple practice session. In the back of your textbook, there is a large section detailing a number of easy-to-intermediate enchantments. All of them have effects that are convenient in some way, so the typical way to use them is to seal them in jewelry, like we often do. Each of you can pick any enchantment you want, and we’ll spend the rest of the class today enchanting the stones and then making them into pendants or other accessories. And you can keep what you make, of course!”
The excited whispers in the class erupted into full conversation as the foals immediately began discussing what they were going to make.
“Alright, settle down!” Professor Luster called over the noise. Before we do anything, you each need to pick out a gem. Line up, and don’t worry, there are plenty to go around!”
Many of the students stampeded to the front of the room. Dinky trotted over to Clarity and Honeydew, who both looked as excited as she felt.
“I can’t believe this!” Clarity gushed. “Professor Luster doesn’t even let us keep the practice stones, and now we get to make our very own high-quality enchanted jewelry? It’s a terrible thing to say, but I sorta wish ol’ Twinkletoes would get sick more often!”
Honeydew giggled. “On another topic, do either of you girls know what kind of enchantment you’re going to use yet?”
Dinky shrugged. “I think I’m going to look through the textbook before I decide,” she admitted.
“Girls!” called Professor Luster sweetly. “You’re up next!”
Dinky and her friends approached the bag. The fillies looked at one another, silently asking which would go first.
“Go ahead, Clarity,” Dinky said. “You pick first.”
Professor Luster held the bag open and Clarity stuck a hoof inside and fished around for the right gem. She pulled out a pinkish-purple stone cut into a circle.
“What’s this?” she asked. “It’s a little too pink to be amethyst, I think…”
“That, Clarity, is a topaz,” Professor Luster declared. “The most common ones are light blue, but they come in a variety of colors. Well, to compare it to something more easily recognizable, it’s a little harder than an emerald,” the professor answered. “You should be able to give it a pretty strong magical effect.”
Clarity grinned as she cradled the stone in her hoof, before stepping aside to allow Honeydew to choose. The pink filly reached into the bag and withdrew it almost immediately, holding a peculiar object. The stone she had chosen wasn’t cut into an ornate, faceted pattern at all, nor was it semi-transparent or vibrantly colored. It looked a bit like an egg shaped rock, a few centimeters long and dull blue in color, with six whitish lines radiating out from a central point on the oval.
Honeydew looked disappointed. “Is this even a gem?” she asked forlornly. “It looks like a smooth rock.”
Professor Luster, however, had the opposite reaction. Her eyes lit up when she saw what Honeydew was holding.
“Don’t judge a book by its cover, Honeydew,” the professor said. “What you’ve got there is a star sapphire. Not much to look at maybe, but the internal structure is every bit as good as that of the kind of sapphire you’re more familiar with. It’s one of the hardest gems there is, and despite its appearance, you could put just about any kind of enchantment on that and get marvelous results.”
“Oh.” Honeydew blushed a bit and backed away, examining her humble-looking gem with newfound admiration.
“And now it’s your turn, Dinky,” Professor Luster said, beckoning to the filly. “Let’s see what you get.”
Dinky cautiously reached into the sack. She felt dozens of stones, but it was impossible to tell their variety without seeing them. She felt around for a few moments before making her selection.
Dinky lifted the gem out of the darkness of the sack. The stone in her hoof was totally clear, and reflected the light, refracting it into many colors. The filly stared at it, hardly daring to believe her eyes, before attempting to speak.
“Is… is this a…?”
Professor Luster nodded. “You’re very lucky,” she admitted. “That’s a diamond. There’s only two or three of those in this whole bag. And in its pure form, it’s the most readily enchantable substance in Equestria.”
Dinky still had trouble finding her voice.
“I… do I… really get to keep this?”
“That was the deal,” Professor Luster answered, smiling. “Why don’t you girls head over to one of the work tables and pick out some enchantments for those impressive gems of yours.”
Dinky nodded vaguely and wandered over to a table, still looking at the diamond in shock. Clarity and Honeydew sat down on either side of her.
Clarity waved a hoof in front of Dinky’s face. “Equestria to Dinky,” she called. “Let’s get started. I know that diamond is cool but it’s just a shiny rock if you don’t figure out how to enchant it.”
Dinky smiled. “You have a point. Where’re the textbooks?”
Clarity slid the three large books across the table, and each filly began to page through, searching for the perfect spell. Around the room, other students began choosing a spell and enchanting their stones, but Dinky and her friends were finding it difficult to decide on the right spells.
“It can’t be just anything,” Clarity said, throwing her front hooves up for emphasis. “This is probably the only enchanted object we’ll get to keep all term! We have to choose the one spell that we want to take with us wherever we go.”
The grey filly turned another page, and slammed her hoof down on the book excitedly.
“Like this one! This one’s perfect!”
Dinky leaned over to look at the page in Clarity’s book.
Pony Compass Charm:
Enchantment that allows the wearer of the enchanted object to find their way to the location of a specific pony or ponies, the identities of whom are specified when the enchantment is first set.
“Isn’t that cool?” Clarity asked. “I could enchant it so that it leads me to you girls if I need to find you.”
“How do you specify that we’re the ponies you want to find, though?” Dinky asked.
“You each just need to put a hoof on the gem while I enchant it,” Clarity explained. “It’s small enough that only two ponies would be able to touch it at once anyway.”
Clarity set the gem on the tabletop between her two friends, then placed her forehooves behind it and leaned forward, swishing her tail expectantly. “Well come on, let’s try it!” she urged.
Dinky grinned and placed her hoof on the topaz, and Honeydew followed suit. Clarity’s deep red magic enveloped her horn as she concentrated.
There was a loud crackle of energy, and Dinky jumped and pulled her hoof back as a sensation akin to an electrical shock ran up her foreleg. Honeydew did the same, looking at the gem with apprehension as it briefly pulsed with reddish light.
Clarity grinned sheepishly. “Whoops,” she mumbled. “The last paragraph says that the ponies touching the gem will feel a shock when their body signatures are locked in. I guess I should have read that before.”
Dinky sighed and shook her head, chuckling. “No harm done, I guess,” she replied. “That was just a little unexpected.”
“Now I guess it’s my turn,” Honeydew chimed in. “I think I found the spell I want.”
She pointed to a page in her textbook.
Inconspicuous spell:
Makes the wearer of the enchanted object particularly unnoticeable. The wearer can still be seen, but others are likely to pay little to no attention to the wearer unless they catch another’s attention by speaking directly to them. The charm is not terribly powerful and the pony affected by it can often be sensed either through certain spells or just by pure perception of particularly alert individuals, unicorn or otherwise.
Dinky scrunched up her nose. “Honeydew, why would you want that?” she asked, concerned.
“Well, I thought, uh…” Honeydew shuffled a hoof on the floor shyly. “I thought maybe I wouldn’t have to worry about Scuffle anymore. If he doesn’t notice me, he can’t bother me.”
“But it’s not worth it!” Dinky argued. “Would you really hide yourself from everypony, just to make sure that one in particular leaves you alone? Even we probably wouldn’t be able to acknowledge you unless you came and talked to us!”
“Well, I’d make sure to come and find you every time we were together and let you know I was there,” Honeydew countered, somewhat meekly. “Or, you know, take off the enchanted jewelry when I’m around you girls…”
“It’s still a bad idea, Honeydew,” Clarity added. “I know you have trouble getting used to new ponies sometimes, but you’ll never be able to boost your confidence if you avoid your worries by just slipping into the background and letting the world pass by.”
Honeydew sighed. “I suppose you’re right,” she conceded. “I guess I really don’t want to slip away from everypony else entirely. I just wish I could disappear when Scuffle was around.”
Clarity patted Honeydew on the back. “We’ll figure out how to deal with him eventually,” she reassured her shy friend. “I promise. Now, let’s pick an enchantment that will suit you better.”
Honeydew bit her lip. “You girls don’t think there are any spells in here that I could use for Magical Biology related things, do you?”
“I saw one!” Dinky realized. “It’s just a couple pages ahead of where you are now, I think.”
Honeydew flipped through the next few pages until she found the spell Dinky had mentioned.
Life Empathy Charm:
Provides the wearer with an increased ability to sense and share in the feelings of plants and animals. Requires prior knowledge of the skill in order to be properly amplified. Works for unicorns. Remains empirically untested in other pony races, but claims have been made that it has an effect.
“I’m already really good at sensing the feelings of the plants, though,” Honeydew pointed out.
“But this applies to plants and animals!” Clarity said. “Have you ever tried tapping into their consciousness, like you do with the plants?”
“Once or twice,” Honeydew said. “It’s very difficult, though. Animals have much more concrete and complicated patterns of thought. Sharing in everything they feel at once is much harder than sharing the sensations of a plant.”
“Well, maybe this charm can help,” Dinky suggested. “It says you already need to have the ability before it can amplify it, but if anypony in this class might be able to benefit from a spell like that, it’s you!”
“I… guess it could be useful,” Honeydew said. “Should I give it a try?”
Her friends nodded. Honeydew set her sapphire on the table and surrounded it with her aura. She glanced at the book one more time and squeezed her eyes shut as she applied the spell. The gem flashed a brilliant shade of blue for a moment, before rapidly fading back to its original dull color.
“I hope that worked,” Honeydew said, examining the stone as if she expected it to look different.
“Why wouldn’t it have?” Dinky asked. “These are easy spells. Once you attach that to a piece of jewelry, you can test it out.”
Honeydew nodded. “Well, then that just leaves you, Dinky. What enchantment are you going to use?”
“Well… I found one,” Dinky said. “It’s not as exciting as the ones you girls used, but it’s important to me.”
Dinky opened her textbook to a specific page, and Clarity and Honeydew leaned over to read.
Long Distance Bond:
Allows two ponies who are socially close to one another but separated by a long physical distance to maintain a simple bond. (Requires two enchanted objects.) Enchanted gem will glow faintly and emit warmth when the wearer of one gem thinks about the owner of the other. Requires both ponies to be wearing the enchanted objects simultaneously.
“My friend Pipsqueak back in Ponyville has only just moved there from Trottingham in the last year or so, and I’m one of his closest friends,” Dinky explained. “He’s happy that I get to attend the Academy, but I miss him a little while I’m away, and he misses me even more, since he doesn’t have very many friends in Ponyville to pass the time with. I figure if we each have something enchanted with this spell, it won’t quite feel like we’re really so far apart.”
“Aww,” Honeydew cooed. “Exciting or not, that’s really sweet,” she commented.
“There’s just one problem,” Clarity interjected. “You need to make two enchanted items, but you only have one gem.”
Dinky nodded. “I wonder if the charm works with two different gems. Maybe Professor Luster can give me another one.”
“Did I hear my name?” asked Professor Luster as she trotted over to Dinky’s table.
“I have a… small question,” said Dinky hesitantly. “I was thinking of casting this Long Distance Bond spell, but it needs two stones. Could I maybe get a less powerful stone to use for the second piece?”
Professor Luster frowned. “Ooh, Dinky, I’m not sure this spell would work very well if the enchanted items aren’t identical…”
She brightened. “But… if we could split the gem you have into two halves very cleanly, it’d still maintain its high-quality spell containment ability!”
It was Dinky’s turn to frown. “But isn’t a diamond the hardest stone there is?” she asked quizzically. “Even if we could break it, I doubt we could do it without it just breaking into two jagged chunks.”
“Well, I can’t break it,” Professor Luster admitted. “But if I take it upstairs to the Combat Magic professor, he might be able to. I’ve seen him use a spell that cleaved an entire boulder cleanly in half. I don’t think even a diamond would be a match for him.”
The professor lifted Dinky’s diamond and placed it in her saddlebag. “I’ll bring the halves of this back to you this evening in the fillies’ residence tower. You can spend the rest of the class period helping your friends attach their gems to some accessories, and you can grab the one that you’ll embed your gems in later. You can enchant them once I give them back later tonight.”
“That sounds fine,” Dinky said. “Thanks for going out of your way to help, Professor.”
Professor Luster flipped her mane and chuckled. “It’s no trouble. Not for a student as dedicated as you are, anyway.”
Professor Luster ambled off to check on the other foals, leaving Dinky and her friends to choose their accessories.
Clarity pursed her lips as she examined her gemstone. “What do you think I should make with this?” she asked. “I’m not really a fan of bracelets, and a necklace or something seems unnecessary, since I don’t really need to see it to use its magic…”
Honeydew reached over and gingerly lifted a lock of Clarity’s messy, sky blue mane. “Well, if I were you, I’d put it on a hair clip,” the pink filly giggled.
A ridiculous grin spread across Clarity’s face. “Honeydew, that’s an awesome idea!” she yelled, startling her friend a bit. “Are you going to make a hair clip too? You always have your mane done up all fancy anyway.”
Honeydew shook her head. “Nah, if I put it in my mane, you probably wouldn’t be able to see it. But I know somewhere where it’ll look nice.”
Honeydew sat down and pulled the tip of her braided tail around to the front of her body. A small metal band was fastened near the bottom, holding the tail’s intricate woven pattern in place, save for the tufted tip that stuck out from the other side of the fastener.
Honeydew removed the band, causing her tail to partially unwind. She fixed the small, rounded stone to it, and then, after carefully winding her tail back into position, slipped it back on. She gave her tail a few curious flicks, and nodded happily when the stone stayed in place.
“Feel any different?” Dinky asked.
Honeydew shook her head.
“Don’t worry, it’ll work when you need it,” Clarity assured her as she returned with a gold barrette she’d retrieved from the pile of accessories Professor Luster had placed on a table at the back of the room for the students to use. “Now, let’s see… how does this work?”
Clarity managed to fasten a hook to the back of her topaz that allowed it to connect to her hair clip. She pushed back the dangling hair on her right side and clipped it back with her new accessory, giving her an adorably lopsided appearance.
While Clarity and Honeydew chattered excitedly about their newly enchanted accessories, Dinky made her way over to the box of unclaimed ones.
“Let’s see,” she mumbled, pushing aside more hair clips and other girly objects. “I need something that Pip would be willing to wear…”
At the bottom of the container, Dinky found two very simple brass pendants, each with a space in it to place a gem. Smiling, she placed both of them in her saddlebag for later.
I hope Pip will be as excited about these as I am! Dinky thought. I’d hate to have to split that diamond for no reason.
She shook her head. What am I thinking? Pipsqueak’s gonna love these.
Reassured, the filly rejoined her friends.
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The light orb in the room at the base of the residence tower cast wavering light over Dinky as the filly slowly toiled away on an essay, glancing at the door every few moments in hopes that Professor Luster would appear. The chamber at the base of the tower was abandoned; at this late hour, all the students had either retired to their dorms to spend the remainder of the evening studying, or were next door in the residence tower lounge. Sparkler wasn’t even in her room, although Dinky wasn’t particularly upset that the grouchy overseer wasn’t around.
Dinky listened to the muffled chatter of the foals next door in the lounge. Clarity’s voice, as usual, was loud enough to make out, even over the rest of the noise. She longed to go join her friends, but she was determined to keep waiting for—
“Hello, Dinky.”
Dinky turned to the door. “Professor Luster! I didn’t hear you come in.”
“I was trying to be quiet in case ponies were studying in here,” the professor explained. “Although from the sound of things next door, it seems like you’re the only one studying right now.”
“I was just working on something while I waited for you,” Dinky admitted. “Was the Combat Magic professor able to cut the diamond?”
Professor Luster responded by lighting her horn, and two half-moon shaped diamonds rose out of her saddlebag. She placed them in Dinky’s hoof.
“Now you take good care of those,” she warned. “It’s hard for some professionals to get a hold of diamonds for enchantment purposes. For a first-term student to get them is basically unheard of.”
“I’ll keep them safe!” Dinky assured her. “And my friends and I will let you know if our enchantments worked when we see you in class next week.”
“I’ll be looking forward to it,” the professor said as she opened the door. “Have a pleasant evening, Dinky.”
Professor Luster trotted out, and Dinky turned to go find her friends, but stopped and listened curiously when she heard another set of voices approaching just outside the building.
“Presto, I’ve told you a thousand times, if you give them too much free reign, there’s going to be chaos.”
“Come on, Sparkler, lighten up. This is a magic academy, not a military school. I’m all for rules, but sometimes there are things we don’t need to regulate.”
The overseers are talking? Dinky thought curiously. It seems like those two are usually too busy with their responsibilities to collaborate very much.
Dinky opened the tower door just a crack and peered curiously out. The two older students were standing on the landing just a few pony-lengths from the door.
Presto looked worn from the day’s work, but the colt still managed to crack a smile. “I just think maybe you’re putting a little too much pressure on yourself and the fillies you’re looking after this year, that’s all,” he said, maintaining a tone that sounded helpful rather than critical.
Sparkler remained stoic. “I’m trying to make sure the students receive the experience they’re here for. Drama between students is never a good thing for promoting study.”
Presto shuffled his hooves. “Well, whatever. I know you have your reasons for being a little… steadfast in your ways. And I respect that. Just try not to go too overboard, okay?”
He extended a hoof. “I’m just trying to make sure you don’t stress yourself out too much. I mean, you and I are friends, aren’t we?”
Sparkler stood still for a few moments. Then, to Dinky’s great surprise, she seemed to soften a little. She shook Presto’s outstretched hoof and gave a small smile of her own.
“Yeah, I suppose you always have been looking out for me,” she admitted.
“And you for me, I’m sure,” Presto replied.
For a moment, the two ponies stood in silence. Then Sparkler turned to go.
“Wait, Sparkler, hold on a second.”
The filly turned around. She said nothing, so Presto continued.
“I was thinkin’ about going down to Canterlot this weekend to… pick up some stuff. D’you, uh… wanna come along?”
Sparkler’s face remained rigid, but something in her eyes seemed to reflect more than what her expression showed. After a few moments, she sighed and shook her head.
“I’ve got too much to do. You go.”
Presto visibly deflated. “Right,” he mumbled. “Can’t blame a colt for trying, I guess.”
He turned toward the colts’ tower. “Have a good night, Sparkler.”
Sparkler wheeled around and made for her own door. Dinky gasped and scampered backwards, throwing herself back onto the couch where she had been studying so it wouldn’t look like she’d been spying. She only just managed to spread her essay in front of her when the overseer entered. Her purple eyes met Dinky’s bright yellow ones.
“What are you looking at?” the older filly asked coldly.
“Nothing!” Dinky chirped, as innocently as possible. “Just doing a little homework!”
Sparkler wordlessly made her way to her private dorm, slamming the door and leaving Dinky alone to ponder what she’d just overheard.
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“Found you!”
Clarity poked her head into the small opening beneath an outcropping of rocks into which Dinky had wedged herself.
“And in record time, too,” Dinky grunted as she struggled to squeeze herself out of the tiny space. “It took you less than a minute, and considering how far away you started from, you must have come straight here.”
Clarity beamed. “This is so much fun! Let’s test it again!”
Dinky rolled her eyes. “It doesn’t need any more testing, Clarity,” she pointed out. “You’ve already proven half a dozen times that you can find me immediately no matter where I hide as long as you have that enchanted barrette on.”
Clarity positively glowed with glee as she tapped the little gem-adorned hair clip. “Come on, just one more?” she pleaded, giving Dinky the best puppy dog eyes and quivering lip she could muster.
Dinky sighed. “Oh, fine,” she grumbled, her tail drooping in defeat. “But then we’re done, alright?”
“’Atta girl!” Clarity cheered. “Go on, go hide again!”
Clarity covered her eyes, and Dinky took off toward another part of the grounds, trying (in vain, she knew) to find a hiding spot good enough to outsmart Clarity’s enchanted barrette. She decided this time to make her way into the forest, where she hunkered down beneath a patch of wide ferns and waited.
After a moment of hiding, something caught the filly’s attention; the forest had once again fallen eerily silent, and when that happened, there was usually only one explanation. Before she could investigate though, the stillness was broken by the sound of hooves crashing through the brush, and a moment later, a layer of reddish magic surrounded the ferns and lifted them away.
“Gotcha!” Clarity giggled. “Man, this enchantment is really—”
Dinky pressed a hoof to Clarity’s muzzle, silencing her. “Listen,” she whispered. “What do you hear?”
The fillies listened, but the forest gave no sound.
“…Nothing?” Clarity mumbled, confused.
“Exactly. It’s too quiet. And that means—”
A bush a short distance away shifted just the tiniest bit. A fleeting glint of blue flashed by in the shadows beneath the leaves.
“There you are!” Dinky roared, hurling herself headlong toward the bush. “You’re not getting away this time!”
There was a frenzied rustle. The creature darted from the bush and scurried deeper into the forest in its usual strangely ambiguous way. Dinky crashed through the bushes, ignoring the cuts and scrapes she received in an effort to keep up with it.
Something gave a high-pitched yelp, and the creature stumbled. It paused for just a moment, realized Dinky was catching up, and leapt into the trees, disappearing almost instantly into the boughs.
Dinky skidded to a halt at the bare patch of ground where her target had stumbled. While the creature itself was gone, something else remained.
A bright orange fox was lying in the dirt. It was struggling, unable to get up. Dinky assumed the creature she was pursuing had managed to trip over and injure the poor thing before it fled into the trees.
Clarity pushed her way through the bushes, panting, and came to stand by Dinky’s side. “I take it you didn’t catch him?” she asked.
Dinky shook her head. “Nah, but look at this. I think he accidentally hurt this fox as he was running.”
“D’you think Honeydew can help?” Clarity asked. “I don’t know the first thing about animals, but Honeydew might be able to figure out what’s wrong with it, at least.”
“I haven’t seen Honeydew all day,” Dinky replied. “Do you know where she is?”
Clarity looked pensive for the tiniest moment. “In the castle library, second story, by that table in the corner,” she said matter-of-factly.
“Did your barrette tell you that?”
“Yep.”
“You’re having entirely too much fun with that thing.”
“Can’t argue with that!”
Clarity began to make her way out of the trees. “Stay here,” she commanded. “I’ll bring Honeydew to see if she can help.”
Dinky slumped down onto her haunches and looked at the fox, which continued to eye her warily.
“I guess we both have a bone to pick with that changeling. Or… whatever it is,” she said to the fox. “But boy, it’s fast, isn’t it?”
The fox responded with a low snarl.
A few minutes later Clarity reappeared, and Honeydew trotted along close behind her.
“Hi, Honeydew,” Dinky greeted. “Think you can help us out?”
Honeydew bit her lip. “Professor Chestnut and I have talked about animals a little bit,” she said nervously, “but I haven’t even learned anything about normal animal care yet, let alone spells for it.”
“You don’t have to use a healing spell or anything,” Dinky said. “Just use that sensory spell you’re so good at to see if you can figure out the problem.”
Honeydew shrugged. “Well, alright…”
Honeydew lit her horn and closed her eyes, exactly as she did when trying to connect with a plant. After only a second or two, she gave a surprised squeak and lurched backward, quickly shutting off the spell.
“It’s, uh, his leg,” she said absently. “I felt it myself. A lot more clearly than I was expecting to, actually.”
Clarity grabbed the tip of Honeydew’s tail with her magic and waved it in the air, displaying the enchanted tail ring Honeydew had made the day before. “I’m guessing this had something to do with that,” she snickered. “If your enchantment works anywhere near as well as mine does, then I’m not really surprised.”
Honeydew blushed. “I kinda forgot I was wearing that…”
“So what’s wrong with the fox’s leg?” Dinky asked.
“Well, I don’t think it’s broken, just sprained or something,” Honeydew admitted. “I’m no expert, but maybe if you just, uh… braced it with something to keep it straight he’d be able to walk on it.”
Dinky set down her saddlebag and searched for something she could use to help the fox. She removed a thin scarf, and then retrieved a short, straight stick from the forest floor.
"I can probably make a splint or something with this," she suggested. "Make sure the fox cooperates."
Clarity nodded, and after giving the fox an apologetic glance, lifted it into the air in a cloud of magic. The animal yelped in surprise and looked at the fillies nervously. Gingerly, Dinky reached out and extended the fox’s leg. It gave a low growl, but continued to stay still. Dinky placed the stick against its leg and wrapped it with the scarf, creating a makeshift splint.
The filly backed off a few paces as Clarity set the fox down, and it shifted on the ground before delicately testing its leg. It managed to stand and limp a few paces.
“There you go!” Dinky said. “That should serve until your leg feels better.”
The fillies all peered at the fox curiously as it ambled in a few small circles, adjusting to the new way it had to walk. It looked at the splint, and then at Dinky, with a less hostile expression than it had worn before.
And then, in one quick movement, it snatched a bright object that had been dangling partially out of Dinky's saddlebag, and disappeared into an opening between the roots of an enormous tree. Dinky only just managed to catch sight of the object in its jaws: one of her pendants, with the diamond still awaiting enchantment embedded inside.
“Hey!” Dinky cried indignantly as the fox’s bushy tail disappeared into the darkness. “You ungrateful little pest! That’s important! Give it back!”
Dinky cantered up to the tree and pawed at the roots, but they were far too massive to budge with any force the filly could apply. She tried to pull them up magically, but that failed just as spectacularly.
Angry, Dinky shoved her muzzle into the tiny space, but she couldn’t even push her head through the opening, let alone her entire body. She sank to the ground, peering into the hole, but there was no sign of the fox. However, there was something else intriguing.
“It looks like there’s a pretty large space down here,” she mumbled to her friends as she struggled to see deeper into the darkness.
“What do you mean?” Clarity asked. “Is it some kind of hollow beneath the tree?”
“I think so,” Dinky said. “It looks big enough for a filly to stand in, if only we could get past the roots…”
Honeydew cleared her throat. “Dinky, I can probably help with that,” she said meekly.
Dinky stepped aside. “Go right ahead,” she invited. “One of my diamonds was in that pendant. I have to get it back somehow.”
Honeydew stepped up to the base of the tree and once again lit her horn. For several moments, nothing happened.
Honeydew began to strain. “Come on…” she groaned, “Just move a little bit. Your roots can still hold…”
Clarity raised an eyebrow. “What is she doing?” she asked.
“Talking to the tree,” Dinky said simply.
All at once, a root lurched, causing an upheaval of dirt as it moved to a new position. The other root did the same a moment later, creating a tiny passageway between them just wide enough for a filly to squeeze through.
Honeydew paused, panting hard. “That should do it, I think,” she gasped. “That tree is very old, and I don’t think it was too keen on moving from the position it’s been in for the last few generations, but eventually it was willing to listen to me.”
Clarity placed a hoof on Honeydew’s back. “That was really impressive, you know,” she commented.
Honeydew waved away the compliment. “Come on, let’s go get Dinky’s pendant,” she said.
Clarity and Honeydew moved out of the way so Dinky could pass. The purple filly cast an illumination spell and carefully descended the steep dirt pathway into the space beneath the tree.
The chamber she found was even wider than she anticipated. It was roughly circular and almost as spacious as the dormitory the three fillies shared. The tightly packed soil ceiling was only a few inches above their heads, and dozens of roots of various sizes crisscrossed through it.
Near the back of the room was the troublesome fox, who once again eyed the fillies with suspicion. Without even approaching the animal, Dinky cast a levitation spell, and her pendant flew across the room and back into her saddlebag. The fox didn’t do anything to object.
“Look at him, he doesn’t even care. He just wanted to be trouble.” Dinky said indignantly.
“Maybe he’s hungry,” Honeydew suggested. “Once he figured out your pendant wasn’t food, he probably stopped caring about it.”
Honeydew took a few crackers from her saddlebag and tossed them across the room. The fox took a cautious sniff, then snatched them up and carried them off past the girls and up the tunnel into the forest.
“See? He just wanted something to eat,” she remarked.
“What is this place anyway?” Dinky asked. “It’s way too big to be the fox’s den.”
“I don’t know,” Clarity said pensively, “but this place is kinda cool if you have some imagination. Picture this chamber with a light orb or two from the castle, a couple of cushions or something, maybe some posters…”
Dinky laughed. “Here?” she asked incredulously. “Seems like kind of a weird place to hang out, unless you’re going for the whole ‘super secret clubhouse’ effect.”
Clarity’s jaw dropped. “That is an excellent idea!” she cried. “No one knows about this place! It could be our own secret hideout!”
“There’s one problem with that,” Dinky pointed out. “Anypony can get in here now that we moved the roots out of the way, so it won’t stay secret for long.”
“Actually, now that the roots have moved once, there isn’t much soil in the way to prevent them from moving back,” Honeydew chimed in. “I think, as long as we used the space regularly, it would probably be pretty easy for me to open and close the roots as needed.”
A wacky grin spread across Clarity’s face. “See? It’s perfect!” she insisted. “We can have secret meetings here without anypony else discovering us.”
“Secret meetings about what?” Honeydew asked, sounding increasingly confused.
“Who cares?” Clarity said. “Secret hideouts are cool no matter what you do in them.”
Honeydew sighed. “Well, I’m not sure I see the appeal, but I’ll take your word for it.”
“I can think of one thing appealing about it,” Dinky said. “It’s somewhere other than our dorm where we can hide from Scuffle and his brothers.”
Honeydew’s eyes widened. “I hadn’t thought of that,” she admitted. “Maybe this would be a good place to hang out when we aren’t in class…”
“As weird of an idea as this is, I can’t help but agree,” Dinky admitted.
“Alright!” Clarity yelled, stamping a hoof triumphantly. “Come on, let’s go back to the castle right away and start drawing up the designs for our new secret hideout.”
Clarity practically sprinted out of the dark chamber. Honeydew carefully closed the roots over the hole once she and Dinky exited and both of them had to run to catch up with Clarity, who was already bound for the castle. The trio immediately began to discuss the details.
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The three fillies were so engrossed in the discussion of their new hideout that they didn’t even notice the uncomfortable prickling sensation of being observed by an all-too-familiar pair of blue eyes. Their owner mumbled to itself as it watched them leave.
“When she spoke to the fox, she said I was a changeling, yes she did,” the creature hissed ponderously to itself. “This will be even easier now than I anticipated, yes it will! She will have no reason to suspect or mistrust me when we finally meet if she is convinced that it is the castle changeling who watches her.”
The leaves rustled ominously as the creature shuddered with anticipation. “Time runs short, yes it does. I must not continue to stall. The purple filly and I shall meet face-to-face at last, yes we will. And we will do so tomorrow.”
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Dinky found herself struggling to focus in Magic in History class. Normally, giving a class held on a Friday afternoon completely undivided attention was a task in and of itself, especially considering how dry Professor Curled Quill could be, but today, there were additional distractions clouding the filly’s mind.
First and foremost, her typical Friday morning Transformation and Conjuring class had been cancelled due to Professor Flux’s absence; the stallion had gone to an important conference in Fillydelphia. Unfortunately, this meant Dinky did not have the chance to confront Nester about her suspicions, and she resented the fact that the mystery of the creature in the forest had to continue for another week.
On top of that, her mind was teeming with ideas for the subterranean hideout she and her friends had discovered the previous afternoon. Clarity was going home for the upcoming weekend (it was the first time all term she had done so), and she and Dinky were both planning to bring decorations and simple furniture to set up there.
Something on the floor tapped lightly against Dinky’s hind leg, bringing her out of another daydream. She leaned over and inspected the offending object that had bumped her hoof. It was a quill, presumably dropped by the student behind her.
Dinky levitated the quill and turned around briefly to deposit the quill on the desk of a yellow colt with an orange mane and blue eyes, who nodded briefly in thanks. Dinky hesitated a moment before turning back to her own work.
That’s really strange, she thought. I’ve been in this class all term, but I don’t remember ever seeing that colt before.
Class ended a few minutes later. Dinky shoved her woefully incomplete notes into her saddlebag and resolved to check in with Clarity and Honeydew later to fill in the parts she’d missed. They had Magic in History earlier in the week than she did, so they were a useful source of information.
Just before Dinky left the room, there was a thump and a loud clatter behind her. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw that the colt that had been sitting behind her had managed to drop his saddlebag, spilling school supplies everywhere. He grumbled something inaudible as he began to pick the scattered objects up.
Dinky trotted back into the room. “Hey, do you need help with that?” she asked curiously.
The colt shrugged. “Sure,” he mumbled.
Dinky lit her horn, and between the two foals, the saddlebag was quickly re-packed.
“So, did you transfer into this class at some point after the term began?” Dinky asked. “I don’t remember seeing you before, but maybe I was just being a little unobservant.”
“I’ve been here the whole time,” the colt said. He looked for a moment as if he had something else to add, but nothing came.
“Oh, really?” Dinky asked. “I don’t remember you answering any questions in class or anything…”
The colt frowned and looked at the floor. “I don’t talk much,” he mumbled. “I have a few… embarrassing speech habits…”
Again, the colt displayed a visible effort to stop himself from saying something else, which made Dinky all the more curious. His voice itself was smooth, almost soothing, so she wondered what it was about it he felt he had to hide.
“Well, I won’t make fun of you or anything,” she offered. “You can talk to me without worrying about it, if you want.”
The colt shrugged. “It’s not too terrible, I suppose,” he admitted. “It’s just that if I’m not careful, I have a nasty habit of reaffirming what I just said right after I say it, yes I do.”
He paused and blushed. “…Like that.”
“Oh, that’s not a big deal,” Dinky assured him. “I mean, I can see how some of the mean foals would make fun of you for that, but your friends shouldn’t mind.”
The colt smiled sheepishly. “I don’t exactly have many friends,” he admitted. “I tend to stay away from other ponies most of the time, yes I do.”
“Well, then I’ll be your friend,” Dinky offered. “It would be a shame for a friendly colt like you to be alone all the time just because of a weird habit.”
She paused, looking quizzical. “What’s your name, anyway?”
“Sunbeam,” the colt replied, a little more confidently. “It matches my Cutie Mark pretty well, yes it does.”
He turned a bit so Dinky could see the image on his flank of a dark cloud with a ray of light piercing through it.
“Well, I’m Dinky Doo. Nice to meet you, Sunbeam.”
“Likewise,” Sunbeam replied. “So, if you’d like to be friends, maybe we could hang out sometime, yes we could? Say… next week, after this class?”
“Sure!” Dinky said sweetly. “I gotta go for now. My friends are probably waiting for me.”
“Take care,” Sunbeam called. “You wouldn’t want to keep them waiting, no you wouldn’t.”
Dinky waved and trotted from the room, leaving Sunbeam alone among the unoccupied desks. He smiled.
“I think you and I are going to have lots of fun together, Dinky Doo…” he mumbled, in a voice not quite as endearing as the one with which he’d spoken to the filly. “Oh yes we are…”